28 Photos Later: Day 19 in China

Welcome to Day 19 of “28 Photos Later”.

car number plate T4119

It’s Chinese New Year.  So my “19” is hidden in the Shanghai car number plate above.  You can tell it’s from Shanghai because the 沪 character denotes the region.

And today’s photo is “Gong Xi Fa Cai”.  This balloon adorned my apartment in Shanghai for one Spring Festival.  The characters offer a traditional New Year greeting and wish for prosperity –  “Gong Xi Fa Cai!”

gongxifacai balloon

In my half-hearted attempts to continue studying just a little bit of Chinese, I sometimes read John Pasden’s Sinosplice blog.  This week John gave us a link to “Spring Festival Wishes from Around China”.  There are 15 audio clips of Chinese people wishing each other a Happy New Year.  The Beijing clip has an audible “r”; the Shanghai Chongming Island clip honestly sounds like someone I know in Shanghai; but the best one is the super-enthusiastic man from Luzhou, Sichuan. Click on the link and enjoy, even if you don’t know a word of Chinese.

“Spring Festival Wishes from Around China”